So I currently have TWC aka Spectrum and my rates keep going up and the service remains shitty. I have been looking around and no other provider is available for me in my area. I checked fios, AT&T, Google Fiber, etc... and none are available. I guess it's not a monopoly since I can technically get dial up. Total bullshit.

Timely post! I have the curse of Spectrum. I just had the Tech out to see why my upload speed is turtle like.He checked the signal. Said "yep, its slow". Then explained its an "interference problem" they cant track down. And then he left.Love paying for this kind of service!

At the hangar, internet can be had by satellite, the Verizon hockey-puck, cable via Time-Warner / BrightHouse / Spectrum, or DSL from Sprint / Embarq / CenturyLink (I might have missed a name or two).

I use Spectrum at home, CenturyLink at the hangar. I don't like dealing with CenturyLink very much, but Spectrum is truly the devil. I can't think of a punishment / torture evil enough for the Spectrum people.

Only have two choices here and Spectrum/TWC is one of them and my local Telehone Co. DSL being the other. Spectrum being far superior to the latter and, doesn't cost that much more. AT&T u verse all around me but can't get it nor Verizon FIOS.

I'm about to completely drop my internet service as we speak. I'll miss it, but in my area its Comcast or nothing, and I've about had it with Comcast.

It's up to $100 a month, higher than ever, and they just started enforcing bandwidth caps so I have to monitor my traffic to make sure I don't get slammed with overages. I already got rid of cable TV, I'm about to cut the internet cable too.

"Stupid people proliferate because this world has been made safe enough they survive long enough to procreate."

"The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.""Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy.""I did," said Ford, "it is.""So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?""It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want.""You mean they actually vote for the lizards.""Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course.""But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?""Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in."

Posts: 2108 | Location: Two blocks from the Center of the Universe | Registered: December 30, 2004

Strange as it may seem, out here in the AZ sticks we have a choice of 5, but until recently only a choice of 4, and all of those four are wireless. There's always satellite, but the latency sucks, and the price and data cap are horrible. Cellular is available, but again expensive and a low data cap. And we have two ground-based wireless providers. Both were reasonably priced, but could offer no more than about 5Mbps down over 1Mbps up, and were subject to outages from various problem sources (weather, power, having to climb a tower on top of a mountain to fix something, etc). Finally, two years ago, CenturyLink was able to pull a fiber optic cable out our way (not for us, but for a big development down the road). We managed to get a piece of that to provision a remote DSLAM, and so now we have VDSL (very high bit rate DSL) over our existing underground copper that was originally put in place for phones. I get 35Mbps down an 4Mbps up. Quite happy with that.

There were some bills I read that were written up for affordable internet, fiber, etc. Got shot down like the plague. Any attempt to get price caps, etc, on carriers, goes deaf once on the hill. Many other countries get affordable high speed internet services. Here that gets labeled as socialism. We pay some of the highest prices for broadband anywhere. Expect to continue getting gouged. The only way you can get decent pricing is to flip-flop. Get a promotional rate with one, and when that expires leave for the competing service.

Originally posted by Prefontaine:There were some bills I read that were written up for affordable internet, fiber, etc. Got shot down like the plague. Any attempt to get price caps, etc, on carriers, goes deaf once on the hill. Many other countries get affordable high speed internet services. Here that gets labeled as socialism. We pay some of the highest prices for broadband anywhere. Expect to continue getting gouged. The only way you can get decent pricing is to flip-flop. Get a promotional rate with one, and when that expires leave for the competing service.

...a remote DSLAM...underground copper...for phones. I get 35Mbps down an 4Mbps up.

You must live damned close to that DSLAM. You're lucky.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"And it's time that particularly, some of our corporations learned, that when you get in bed with government, you're going to get more than a good night's sleep." - Ronald Reagan

Originally posted by Kskelton:Never heard of Spectrum.. Must be more east coast? We have Cox out here and they are pretty good.

See my post, above, in which I mention that these companies change their names frequently. Spectrum is what Time-Warner / BrightHouse is now calling themselves.

Name of the week. Will be changed next week. As they piss customers off, the change their name. They think we're dumb enough to believe it's a new company. Nope, same old company, new name, new ways to aggravate customers.